


The (School) Bus

by agentmmayy



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Gen, Season 1, based on an au from tumblr, mama may, sort of crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-14 18:59:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14775356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentmmayy/pseuds/agentmmayy
Summary: She meant it as a joke, but Maria paused, angling the door closed. Her brows drew together as she asked, almost hesitantly, “You do know FitzSimmons are only nineteen, right?"What felt like a ball of lead dropped into Melinda’s stomach, pulling her up short. Her mouth went dry and her shoulders rigid as she repeated, "Nineteen?”Or, Melinda finds out that the kids on the Bus are actually kids.





	The (School) Bus

**Author's Note:**

> completely based on this: (idea is NOT mine but this fic is)
> 
> Imagine an AU where Fitzsimmons on the bus are literally fresh out of the academy, and May doesn't realize how old they are til a few weeks in when Maria Hill jokes about her babysitting job, and mentions Fitzsimmons being 19. And May doing research realizes in panic mode that Skye's been lying on her age, and is only 18, barely out of foster care. Coulson is literally adopting the misfits of society, and May got dragged along.
> 
> a huge thank you to miraculousagentsofkrypton on tumblr who reblogged this post buried in my blog which helped me to get out of a writing funk I have been in for the past few days. thank you so much!! and to the anon who first suggested this, you rock.

It was nice to see Maria, even under the circumstances of sorting out the mess at the Hub. 

Ward and Fitz were back on the Bus while Skye and Simmons were with Coulson. He was on a different floor, having been busy with higher levels all day and was dealing with the aftermath of the two girls’ shenanigans and chaos of the day. 

Melinda was happy to let him handle it. She wasn’t the best with words, of course, she left that to Phil. That was why she was currently in another office, dealing with the paperwork as she had done before joining the team.

“ _Simmons?_ ” Maria repeated as if she had heard wrong. “Shot Sitwell? Jemma Simmons? Tiny scientist? Female half of FitzSimmons?”

Melinda nodded. “Non-lethal, but he was out cold for a while.”

Maria shook her head, signing the papers that Melinda held out to her without a pause. “I didn’t know she had it in her.”

Neither did Melinda. “I partially blame Skye. Both of them were involved." 

Maria shook her head again, a half smile on her face. "You and Phil certainly have your hands full.”

“You have no idea." 

"Anyway,” Maria straightened up from leaning on the desk. “I’m sorry for Hand being so…Hand, but-”

“Levels.” Melinda finished, a bit colder than she normally would. “I get it.”

When Skye had first blurted out what she had found and shoved her laptop into Melinda’s face, she was furious. First, she was irritated that Skye was hacking, but then when she had seen the words on the screen, Melinda’s fury was redirected. How could there be no extraction for the two? If Ward was alone, she could understand, but with Fitz? He wasn’t even cleared for combat yet. Hell, none of the kids were.

“No,” Maria insisted. “They should have had extraction, especially since Fitz isn’t cleared for combat.”

“They should have,” Melinda agreed. “But the Bus worked just fine.”

Maria cast a longing glance to the plane sitting on the runway. “It is a nice plane.” She then sighed. “Well, I now have to go talk to Hand. That is if Phil is done yet.”

Melinda suppressed a smirk. Phil was _very_ protective of those under his charge. There was no doubt in Melinda’s mind that he had words with Hand.

Melinda gathered the paperwork she now had to file. “Thank you for stopping by." 

Maria smiled softly, looking more like the young cadet Melinda had first met years ago. "It’s always nice to see you, Mel." 

Melinda felt the barest twitch of her mouth. "You too.”

“Call me if you need anything,” Maria told her as she opened the door. “And good luck on your babysitting job." 

Melinda rolled her eyes, "Very funny. They are adults, Hill, even though they’re not all quite capable.”

She meant it as a joke, but Maria paused, angling the door closed. Her brows drew together as she asked, almost hesitantly, “You do know FitzSimmons are only nineteen, right?" 

What felt like a ball of lead dropped into Melinda’s stomach, pulling her up short. Her mouth went dry and her shoulders rigid as she repeated, "Nineteen?”

“Yeah,” Maria said. “They’re fresh out of the Academy." 

Of all the things Melinda had looked at when picking out the team, she had not even glanced at the ages of Fitz or Simmons when she reviewed their files. Her mind was set on Phil and finding the best people to take care of him, only looking at their skill sets.

Suddenly, she felt sick. 

"I thought you knew,” Maria said. “And Skye doesn’t look much older. I’m surprised Phil brought her on board with how young she is.”

Skye had told them she was twenty-three but now, Melinda was beginning to doubt. Just how young was she? 

“Melinda-”

“I need to go,” Melinda said, exiting the office with the files still in hand yet forgotten at the same time. 

She reached the Bus in record time, perhaps because anyone in her way quickly stepped out of it when they saw her coming. Melinda couldn’t help what she was feeling inside. It was a turmoil of anger, at herself and the kids, but mostly fear.

Ward tried to talk to her as she walked up the ramp but Melinda shouldered past him, going up the stairs and into Phil’s office without a word. She didn’t even sit in the chair behind his desk before she opened his computer. Without thinking, she used an override Fury had given her to access Phil’s Level and open files that were forbidden for her eyes. 

Right now, Melinda didn’t care. She would clear it later.

Skye’s redacted file popped up when she typed in a few words. The lines once blacked out were now in plain sight, and the neatly typed date confirmed what Melinda was afraid of.

She did simple math. 

Skye was eighteen. 

_Eighteen _. A baby, practically and barely out of the foster system.__

____

____

Eighteen. Nineteen. They weren’t just kids anymore. They were _children_. 

Children she had unknowingly put in danger. 

Panic settled over Melinda. How could she have put those children in danger? Flew them from one high-risk job to the next? They weren’t even twenty yet and had more near-death experiences than any teenager needed. And it was all her doing.

Abruptly, Melinda quickly cleared the computer before walking out. 

Did Phil know? Did he realize through his blind haze of taking Skye in that she was so young? Had Phil ever read FitzSimmons’ files? He couldn’t have; there was no way he would let them be in the field if he did. He had to know now.

“Uh, Agent May-”

“You.” Melinda snapped. Fitz jumped. “Sit." 

He sat, but there wasn’t anything beneath him except the floor. Fitz’s legs went into a sprawl, his arms reeling to catch himself. Getting up, he tripped on his way to the couch before sitting down, eyes wide and trained on Melinda.

She took out her phone and pressed one button before holding it up to her ear, never breaking eye contact with Fitz who by now looked on the verge of tears. The first ring was halfway through before Coulson answered, "May-”

“You need to bring Simmons and Skye to the Bus right now.” She didn’t allow him another word. “We all need to talk." 

"O-okay?” He sounded confused. “Is everything-”

“Now, Phil.”

“On our way.”

Melinda disconnected the call. Her eyes went to Fitz.

Now that she knew his age, he appeared so much younger than before. Fitz had a baby face for sure, as the others had teased him about previously, but now he just looked like any other nineteen-year-old. Albeit a scared one.

Melinda couldn’t bear to see the fear in his eyes, fright from the events earlier in the day and wariness of her. Instead, she went over to the cargo hold.

Phil was walking up the ramp with Simmons and Skye trailing close behind him. The confusion on his face shifted into unease when he saw the look on Melinda’s face. Skye angled herself behind him so she wasn’t abject to Melinda’s steely glare.

“Your office. Now.”

They went without a word. 

Fitz’s eyes snapped to them as soon as they walked around the corner but immediately diverted from Melinda. He was as bewildered as the other three were, glancing at Simmons and Skye in mutual confusion.

“You too,” Melinda ordered.

They followed her to Phil’s office where she held the door open. The kids filed in heads downcast and shoulders tense as they sat before the desk. Phil lingered by the door. “May, wh-”

“I will explain." 

The three kids jumped as the door slammed shut.

Melinda let them stew in the tense silence a little while longer as she walked in front of the three, standing before the desk with Phil next to her. 

There she looked at them, _really_ looked at them.

It was all so _clear_ now. How could she not have noticed before?

Fitz and Simmons had awe-filled twinkles in their wide eyes that were only found in young people. Skye still had baby fat lingering in her cheeks and a joy that adulthood hadn’t yet crushed. They had so far been untouched from the cruelties being in Shield required you to see, to live through. 

"Once again, I am so sorry,” Jemma blurted out, the words falling from her lips too fast for Melinda to stop. “I didn’t mean to shoot Agent S-!”

“We know,” Phil said gently. Jemma sagged back into her seat at his reassurance. “May, I took care-”

“That isn’t what this is about,” Melinda interrupted. The room fell back into silence. “It’s come to my attention that you all aren’t as old as we thought you were.”

Skye tensed, which Melinda caught.

Phil frowned and sent Melinda a questioning glance. Melinda pointedly inclined her head to where the two scientists sat. 

He sighed before asking, “How old are you both?" 

"We’re nineteen, sir." 

The color drained from Phil’s face. "Nineteen?" 

Jemma nodded, sharing a glance with Fitz. She looked back at them, confused. "Wasn’t- our ages are in our files, sir. Aren’t they?”

“I must have missed it,” Phil said. He was pinching the bridge of his nose. His eyes were squeezed shut. “How could I have missed it?" 

“I-I’m sure it was a simple mistake,” Jemma tried. 

It was a stupid one Melinda had made, but she needed the best and they were the best.

Phil sighed. His hands fell away from his face. Almost regrettably, he asked, “Is there anything else you need to tell me?”

"Skye isn’t twenty-three.”

“Skye,” Phil said, his tone dripping with disappointment that had the three before him cringing. “Is this true?" 

"Sort of? I-” Skye began, twisting the bracelet on her wrist out of habit. “I don’t actually know my real age. The nuns were horrible at guessing.”

“You’re eighteen.” Melinda deadpanned. Phil choked on nothing. 

“Eighteen?” Skye repeated. “Sweet. I thought I was seventeen.”

“Seventeen?!” Phil exclaimed. “That’s even worse!”

Skye glanced between him and Melinda before asking timidly, “Are you going to kick us off?" 

In her voice, Melinda could hear a little girl, confused and hurt as she was removed from one home to another, not understanding why. She knew Skye thought of the Bus as a home already. She also knew that it was currently the longest Skye had stayed in one place beside the orphanage.

Melinda couldn’t picture the Bus without Skye. She couldn’t imagine walking into the kitchen one morning and not hearing Skye complain about how Coulson wouldn’t let her eat cookies for breakfast, or not listen to Skye’s cheering all the way into the cargo hold as she won yet another game of battleship. 

She also couldn’t imagine the Bus without FitzSimmons. Who would accidentally release the lab rats and have everyone spend half a day looking for the animals? Who else would Melinda prank? Which other scientists could potentially help Phil if he went crazy?

They couldn’t leave.

"No,” Phil said. “No. We’re not kicking any of you off. We’re a team.”

Skye, Fitz, and Simmons all relaxed, sharing relieved smiles with each other.

Damn Phil for dragging her along into this mess. Why did he have to bring these kids into her life? Why did he have to adopt nearly every stray or misfit he saw? Melinda didn’t regret joining the team, though, even if she acted like it. In the past few weeks, these kids had worked their way into her heart. 

Well, she was there now, and the kids weren’t going anywhere, so she might as well take care of them. Extra care, since they were apparently teenagers. 

“There will be rules,” Melinda said.

All three faces fell.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading!! you can also find me on tumblr at agentmmayy if you want to chat about anything :) also, should I add onto this? like little snippets of Mama May from episodes in season 1??


End file.
